Lesson 1: Introduction- The Past

This course is designed for beginners with little to no experience in power quality. The material in this course will help you learn why the electrical environments in customer facilities make it difficult to operate today’s electronic loads reliably and without malfunction, damage, and failure. You will learn what the world’s electrical environment used to look like (electrically) before solid-state electronics were invented and designed into end-use electronic loads. Prior to the 1970’s, the electrical environments in customer facilities were simple, allowing loads to be compatible with the building electrical system. It also allowed the building electrical system to be compatible with the utility power system.

Compatibility is a requirement if customer equipment is to operate in customer facilities without problems. (We’ll learn more about compatibility in blank.) In simple terms, when compatibility exists between the utility power system, a customer’s facility and its loads, malfunctions, damage, and failures of the customer’s building electrical system (BES) and its downstream loads are minimized. In the past, compatibility wasn’t generally a problem which is why end users rarely had problems with the equipment they used.

Objectives of this Course:

It is important to understand the objectives of this course before you start learning about the challenges of today’s electrical environment and why so many end-users have problems with their BESs & equipment. You will learn the five objectives listed below.

• Learn the definition of a linear load and a non-linear load.
• Learn the three types of linear loads.
• Understand the linear loads used in the past – prior to the 1970’s.
• Understand what linear loads were used in which electrical environments during that time.
• Understand the shape of the current drawn by linear loads is part of what defines them as linear loads.